So I See... Konting Pananaw... LITO BANAYO

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Our paper last Thursday reported that the Philippine ambassador to Spain, Joseph Delano Bernardo, otherwise known in Makati circles as "Lani" before he appended the salutation "His Excellency" by appointment of Doña Gloria, has applied to become a Spanish citizen, a subject of its sovereign Crown.

Immediately, former congressman and career diplomat Jun Lozada of Negros Occidental labeled Bernardo’s trying to seek foreign citizenship while still an ambassador as "treason," and rightly so. Bernardo ought to resign forthwith, renounce his Philippine citizenship, and embrace the country of his stated forebears. And live in the land he now loves, España, happily ever after.

But did you know that someone else is thinking of living in Spain after June 30, 2010?

While in the presence of los reales de España, someone expressed the desire to reside after retirement in the country whose language the family is quite conversant with. This statement pleased los reales no end, and one of them expressed a warm abrazo. We could even confer honorary title upon you, thus making you one of us, one of the royals reportedly exclaimed.

What would that be – duquesa, marquesa, condesa?

This story came from a Filipino who is well connected in Spain, and because of such associations, himself speaks la lengua castellana, even if he does not look as mestizo as Lani Bernardo the ambassador, or Jose Miguel the husband of Senora Doña Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

As far as this writer knows, Spain extends dual citizenship to many who buy real estate and reside in this lively and lovely country bordered by the Atlantic in its northwest and the warm Mediterranean in its eastern and southern coastlines. But perhaps being extended honorary title as duque or duquesa, or whatever, entitles the person more than just citizenship or rights of residence. Does it mean the Royal Crown and the government of Spain will extend protection from whatever prosecution the government of the person’s previous citizenship would in the future make?

Maybe we should ask the Fil-Hispanic ambassador to Spain of Doña Gloria, not necessarily the country’s.

Or maybe we should ask Adnan Kashoggi, that Middle Eastern businessman who made billions selling European and American arms and munitions to countries all over the world, and who jets in and out of Europe, and in the 70’s and 80’s, in the US of A likewise. This column’s informant said that someone who recently went to Spain from pobrecita Filipinas met this very wealthy and very well-connected international businessman. To talk about purchases of arms by poor Filipinas, or to discuss possible investment partnerships, our informant would not say. Neither who was going to invest where. Perhaps the conversations were most private.

But Mr. Kashoggi had been very helpful. It was he who convinced the Emir of Kuwait to grant royal audience to Doña Gloria and the pre-arranged leniency to OFW Ranario, the lady au pair convicted for murder. No, it was not the King of Spain, as some other columnist in another paper wrote. My informant insists it was Mr. Kashoggi, who used to be very friendly with Madam Imelda Romualdez Marcos a generation ago.

Shouldn’t we be proud of the persons who lead us, who represent us? Thinking global, thinking like royalty even.

***

Someone else would rather flaunt it right here. At the marina of the Manila Yacht Club these days is berthed a gleaming new yacht, an eighty-footer minimum, its old-time members claim.

It was delivered from Hong Kong just last Monday, where it was refitted, reconditioned and remodeled with the most modern and powerful engine, state-of-the-art instrumentation, and sleek interiors. My friend who has seen the yacht estimates something like that should cost no less than 200 million. Whose is it?

A member of Doña Gloria’s cabinet, one of its most controversial. One of its most powerful too.

***

Is anybody surprised that after Pulse Asia announced that Filipinos consider Doña Gloria the most corrupt of our five recent presidents, SWS next says her satisfaction rating has sunk even further, from negative 11 in the previous quarter to negative 16 in the present quarter? So what else is new?

As far as the reigning queen of the stinking palace by the stinking river is concerned, so what? May magagawa ba kayo?

What we predicted in this space when she gave her predecessor instant pardon after his Sandigan-bayan conviction was validated by the survey of SWS. We said then that the masa who adore Erap will not be disposed kindly to her even if she gave their idol his freedom.

True enough, SWS reports that more people who approve of the Erap pardon are dissatisfied with La Gloria than those who disapprove of the pardon. In short, she may have thought the Erap pardon would endear her to his masa following. It did not.

But it’s not only the masa who are fed up. No less than that elite army of legal practitioners, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines led by its national president, Atty. Feliciano Bautista, took out a half-page newspaper advertisement to voice their feelings about an administration "whose moral fiber has worn thin and whose conscience has vanished". Ouch! Is Gauden-cio Cardinal Rosales able to read that statement?

The lawyers strongly condemned "the culture of corruption, dishonesty and deceit that pervades our government" as "abominable."

Strong words from the nation’s legal advocates. What then would the nation’s moral advocates say? Or do they listen only to the likes of Medy Poblador?

***

We shall take a brief respite from the chores of writing this thrice-a-week column, to rest weary soul from the disappointments of life in this benighted land.

Till next year, to one and all – a Blessed Christmas, and may our people find deliverance in the coming year! From what, from whom, is for us all to meditate upon in this season of grace.

Lito Banayo

Lito Banayo’s involvement in Philippine politics began with a chance encounter with the late Benigno Aquino, Jr. in the spring of 1981, at the Washington Hotel in Washington D.C. Ninoy Aquino was then on exile, after having undergone heart bypass surgery. That started a series of week-end visits to Ninoy’s home in Boston.

In the fall of 1982, Lito decided to come home to the Philippines after two-year stay in the United States, and as he bade goodbye to Ninoy, he was asked to help the then fledging political opposition in the country.

Lito Banayo asked Ninoy who he would report to, and was told to see Doy Laurel. Banayo was quizzical, for the Laurels had been Marcos’ political padrinos in the past. Ninoy told him however that Doy Laurel and he grew up together and were almost like brothers. Thus did Lito Banayo enter the world of a political technician, his description for the kind of work he has been doing since.

He helped Doy Laurel and Eva Estrada Kalaw organized the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) which became the major coalition against the Marcos regime. At a time when media was controlled and Marcos’ monolithic political party, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) was all over, UNIDO put up a difficult but nonetheless successful struggle.

In the 1984 Batasang Pambansan elections, the UNIDO coalition won 60 of 180 seats, with an overwhelming majority in Metro Manila and key capital cities. Lito Banayo was deputy spokesperson and deputy campaign manager of that national campaign, working under Ernesto Maceda, who later became Senate President, and Alfonso Policarpio, Ninoy’s publicist.

When Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines after years of exile, it was Lito Banayo who, along with Erik Espina, coined the welcome slogan “Ninoy, Hindi Ka Nag-iisa,” a welcome greeting that eventually became a political battlecry after the latter was assassinated at the tarmac of the international airport.

When Cory Aquino, Ninoy’s widow, and Doy Laurel, his childhood friend, later challenged Ferdinand Marcos in the historic “snap” elections of February 1986, Lito was one of the major campaign technicians in an effort that drew many volunteers from all walks of life.

He was appointed Postmaster-General after the Edsa uprising that resulted in the downfall of Marcos and the ascent of Aquino. At the postal office, he initiated major systemic reforms, and initiated its transformation from a budget-dependent office under the transport and communications department into an autonomous government corporation now called Philippine Postal Corporation.

He has become political consultant to various names in Philippine politics – Senator Orlando Mercado, Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan, and now Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson. He was consultant too of Speaker Ramon Mitra, Jr., Ronaldo Zamora, Manuel A. Roxas III and Hernando B. Perez, all congressmen at the time.

In 1992, he was campaign spokesman of the Mitra-Fernan presidential tandem. In 1995, he handled the campaign of Senator, later Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan. In 1998, he was in the campaign team that helped Joseph Ejercito Estrada become president of the land. His erstwhile principal, Mercado, was named campaign manager. During the term of President Estrada, he was Secretary-General of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, the political party of the then President.

He served as General Manager of the Philippine Tourism Authority from June 30, 1998 to November 3, 2000. He was also concurrently appointed as Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs with cabinet rank, by President Joseph Estrada. Although he resigned from the Estrada cabinet earlier, he was with the deposed president until his last hours in Malacanang.

In 2001, he was campaign manager for then retired PNP director-general Ping Lacson’s difficult but highly successful run for the Philippine Senate. He also helped Ping Lacson as a contender for the presidency in 2004, as well as Manila Mayor Lito Atienza in administrative matters at City Hall during his term.

Lito Banayo finished Economics at Letran College, then undertook graduate studies at the Ateneo Business School, as well as the University of the Philippines College of Public Administration.

He is native of San Pablo City, Laguna, and Malolos, Bulacan, but his family has moved to Butuan City in Agusan del Norte since the early sixties, although he himself has lived in Manila throughout most of his life. He is married and is blessed with three children.